🔗 Share this article

Despite all hype around the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Lando Norris is keeping a level head about his chances of claiming his maiden drivers' championship.

Norris presently has a 24-point lead over fellow McLaren driver Oscar Piastri and leads Max Verstappen by 49 points, with just up to eighty-three points available across the final three races. But, after pulling off a remarkable comeback from a significant deficit Piastri following the Zandvoort race in the summer, Norris is concentrating on executing with the clinical precision that lifted him to the lead of the championship.

"Things can quickly go the opposite way once more even though I don't want it to," he commented. "That's racing, as we all know. Sometimes you get lucky. You can end up unfortunate. No matter what happens. There's really no point becoming overjoyed or dwelling on it. I still view it as something that remains distant."

Norris has discovered his peak performance at a crucial moment—after difficulties with the car in the opening half of the season—while Piastri has lost the controlled, nearly flawless composure that had for so long made him seem to be a future title winner. Notably, Norris maintained a impressive level of equanimity throughout, insisting despite challenges—such as his withdrawal from the Dutch GP—that he would adhere to his strategy and work every outing with the same relentless attention to detail. This approach has paid off.

Meanwhile, the team have worked hard to attempt to maintain a fair competition for their two drivers, and it has at times been a rather difficult process, especially at the Italian Grand Prix when the squad directed the Australian to surrender second place to his teammate after he had fallen behind because of a slow pit stop. Some fans did not take well to what was seen as the team unnecessarily interfering with their competitors.

Norris has won the last two grands prix, in Mexico City and São Paulo, and was booed on the podium at both, yet he remained unfazed. "When you're leading, many people want to undermine you. They don't want to see you winning. I consider it a good thing," he remarked.

"It makes me laugh. While standing on the winner's stage in Brazil, I really enjoyed it. The experience was very satisfying. At last you sense that you're doing success.

"It doesn't bother me, provided that I come out on top. As long as I believe I am competing the correct way, which I feel like I am, as long as I am confident I am dedicating hard work into being who I am and those kinds of things, then I am not concerned about the rest of it."

Las Vegas, on the other hand, needs to be mastered, and it is a circuit ideal for the McLaren. The layout has similarities with Montreal and Baku: low downforce, cool temperatures, and slippery surfaces. They are the only two tracks in the current championship where McLaren have been unable to claim a single top-three finish, and the leader was cautious once more about their prospects this weekend. Yet, his objective in the short term is simple: finish in front of his teammate and the championship tally he needs will come.

Friday Running Sees Mixed Outcomes for Title Rivals

The Ferrari driver led the times in first practice on what was still a sandy and extremely slippery track. The Williams racer was runner-up, with Verstappen fourth, Norris in P6, and Piastri in eighth. In the more indicative evening session of second practice, the Briton was quickest ahead of the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli, with Piastri 14th; though, the practice lost almost all of the final 20 minutes of track time to inspect a suspected unsecured drain cover at the penultimate corner.

The issue is taken seriously on a street circuit where, at the inaugural Nevada GP held in 2023, a loose manhole struck the Ferrari, heavily harming it and leading to the session to be aborted.

Mercedes Announce Stake Sale

The eight-time constructors' champions have confirmed that their boss Toto Wolff has divested a 15% stake in his investment firm, equating to a 5% share in the team, to American billionaire the cybersecurity magnate. Kurtz is the CEO and founder of the cybersecurity company the tech giant. Wolff will stay on as boss and may receive as much as £230m from the deal, with Mercedes having been valued at £4.57bn, a record for an F1 team.